Mad over Missoni

Over the past few months, Target has been marketing a limited edition line of Missoni For Target brand items. The line consisted of furniture, home accessories, clothing, shoes, and glassware. Missoni was trying to market a variety of items compared to their usual designer line of clothes, shoes, and small accessories. On the launch date of the new line, as early as 7 a.m. lines were forming outside of Target stores, many women wanted to get ahold of the usually $600+ dresses and clothes for a twefth of the price. The demand for these lesser quality, mass produced Missoni items was through the roof, the launch crashed the Target website within an house, and shelves were empty in some store in as little as 20 minutes after opening. Some consumers wonder, how was this a good business call for Missoni? the highly sought after designer brand lost many avid supporters from before the Target days who believe that brand lost its luxury after releasing this line. However the Missoni owner, Margherita Missoni, is planning on launching another lower price scale line after seeing how in demand her cheaper price range products are. The madness didn't end with the Target stores even, a secondary market was created. Over 44,000 Missoni for Target items were on eBay the day of the launch selling at prices two to three times higher than their original price. Perhaps the oweners of Missoni should look into upping their prices on their lower quality goods to help find equilibrium because obviously, consumers are willing to pay big bucks for their new line just to own the coloful zigzags and other bright geometric prints.

Stealing is bad.

In 2001, Apple came out with their new phrase "RIP, Mix, Burn", which was the new slogan for burning music on to CDs, creating playlists, etc. The company strongly asked people not to steal music, and actually placed a label saying "Don't steal music" on the back of every ipod. As time went on, Apple came out with new products, people were making new software that made stealing music easier, and the two had somewhat meshed together. Apple created a new product called Icloud, in which someone could transfer all of the apps, music, etc. onto a computer that the phone is wirelessly synced up to, as long as their account is logged in. As someone who loves listening to music, it's a hastle to buy every single song I want to listen to, and it's easy to believe that people don't have incentive to buy the music, but just download it for free online somewhere. People stealing music hurts the music industry without a doubt because companies aren't getting all of the money they deserve for producing the music. While they are they making a lot of money, producing companies do lose a lot of profit. It is hard to track down all of the people who steal music, but those who do steal music need to hold themselves accountable and be honorable when getting music.

The Holiday Season

Although it's only the beginning of November, most retailers begin preparing for Christmas and Hanukah around this time in order to be prepared for the season of spending. As we learned in class, consumer spending has a lot to do with our country's GDP, so wouldn't it make sense that during the holiday season, in the midst of frantic Christmas and Hanukah shopping, that the United States' GDP would increase sharply for that quarter? According to the Nation Retail Federation (NRF), holiday sales, on average, have increased 2.6% for the last 10 years. Last year, sales increased a whopping 5.2% to $452.9 billion. That is most definitely a lot of consumer spending, which has proven beneficial for the macroeconomy. However, the problem that we face with this huge amount of spending during the holiday season deals with microeconomics, or inside individual households. Many people feel extreme pressure during this season due to financial issues, however they continue to spend a ridiculous amount on gifts, decorations, parties, etc. So how do these people balance their budget? How much is too much to spend on gifts and is their a minimum standard that our society has set?

-Natalie J

Bank of America backs down

Bank of America recently announced its plan to charge debit card holders a monthly fee of five dollars.  Bank of America members were out raged by this and threatened to leave the bank unless the plan was changed. this small change in membership would make the bank an estimated 410 million dollars in just one month.  because people were so repulsed by this plan the bank has discontinued the plan to charge debit card holders merely to retain members. the bank is even offering holders free admission to select museums this weekend as part of there "museums on us program." in my opinion bank of America really messed up by trying to pull a quick one their members and they will now pay for it in the upcoming months. i wonder how many insulted and angry members will switch banks this month.

Guns for Women?

in charleston south carolina a sheriff is urging women to buy and get permits for women to carry on them whenever they are alone. he exclaims that because of all the recent attacks and attempted rapes women shouldn't be taking any chances. this could bring about a large change in the market for handguns. there are 143 million females in the united states today and if everyone of them went out and purchased a handgun sometime in the next month the demand for guns would sky rocket.  the average hand gun is priced at around 300 dollars making the money pulled in by theses ladies would be somewhere around 2,490,000,000,000 dollars. this would cause a huge change for gun companies. unfortunately for gun companies i don't think every woman in the united states will go out and buy a gun but i think that the south carolina sheriff's press release will spark a small economic change in the gun market.

http://news.yahoo.com/south-carolina-sheriff-urges-women-carry-guns-104001215.html

Peanut Butter Prices Are Nuts!

Trick-or-treaters may have paid more of a price this year during Halloween. Peanut butter and all the products associated with, such as Reese’s (the best candy on the market) are dealing with escalating prices due to one of the worst peanut harvests in recent years. Price increases ranging from 20% to 40% as early as last Tuesday have been issued for many Peanut butter producers. According to last year, the price for a ton of peanut butter has already gone up by $750 and continues to climb. Many experts agree that next years peanut butter prices can’t look any better until harvest time roles around. In addition, we can expect increases in many of the compliments associated with peanut butter products. Soon enough jelly will be sold at prices through the roof just because it is so closely associated with peanut butter. Next year’s harvest needs to produce a decent yield of peanuts because I don’t want to start paying the extra buck for something as simple as a Reese’s cup!